Adams Family Correspondence, volume 15
th:January 1803.
I received, yesterday, your favor of the 27th: ult. and thank you, for the wholesome admonitions, it contains.1 Your advice will always receive due attention,
both from myself and our friend. When you shall have received and perused, the
concluding numbers of the Port Folio, & taken with you the consideration of the
extreme rapidity with which they were published, I think you will discover something
like fresh industry added to the Capital of the establishment, if no other improvement.
The Editor has laboured with unceasing industry and perseverance, and in the subordinate
branches, a proportionate increase of vigor & enterprise, have, together,
contributed to bring up lost time, and enabled us to anticipate public expectation. It
may be useful to explain the reason of publishing the first number of the present,
before the last number of the past year. The PF—of the last year did not commence till
the 16th: of January, but as the present year came in on
Saturday, and the No 52 of vol. 2d: could not be published
before the year expired, it was thought best 250 to come out with No
1. of vol 3, on new-year’s day.2 In due
time you will receive the concluding Number of vol. 2.
St Jean Crevecoeur, if you will send us
the book, marked as you propose, shall be translated, by
myself and proper use made of the extracts. I do not wish to trouble you with any
drudgery, and if the volumes of letters are sent round by water, at the same time,
selections shall be made, with care and judgment; a proper classification under distinct
heads and an appropriate introduction, will make them interesting.3 Our friend Shaw, has, with the best intentions,
the worst way of executing them, so far as fair copying goes, of any man I know. Thank
him for his last copy, and let it be the last.
4 As the Rivers continue open, there would be
little if any danger in sending these books by the earliest conveyance, addressed for
me, to the care of Joseph Anthony & Co:—5 I shall send you the volume of Encycloa: when the Chemical Apparatus is ready.
The department of original matter, to which we solicit your
attention, so far as your necessary avocations will permit, is the political. A kind of
Summary of foreign politics, such as you once executed when abroad, exhibited in the
same way, from time to time, would be a valuable acquisition. Occasional animadversions
upon our domestic affairs will also be acceptable. The squibs & crackers, we can let
off here, but the heavy artillery of politics, to carry on the siege against the
administration, must come from afar. Our engineers are
lazy, incapable or worse. If some well digested hints of a
new & improved plan of attack could be brought out with éclat, some credit might be arrogated for the invention. But where is the
rallying point? Are we not in danger of losing every thing, by a victory? Suppose we
take the fortress of Government by storm, who is the leader to restrain all sorts of
disorder and confusion, from the violence of reaction? In short cui bono, is all this ink-shed and this furious combat of feathered javelins. Is
it not, that we newspaper-makers may live? Since the war must be carried on, whatever be its object, our duty is
to annoy the enemy, as much as possible, and for this purpose we must enlist all the
energy that can be recruited, throughout the Country. “Come over to Macedonia & help
us.”6
Your note to the, pastorals was duly
appreciated by us—7 Whatever you write, whether intended for the
press or not, if it fall in Old-schools way—he will print. I thought the Editorial note, at the conclusion of your Ode, was not
intended to be printed, but he would have it in.8 But, for your caution, he says, he should have
printed this last.
“The feast of shells—” The Oration, in commemoration of primordia rerum Americanarum. Orator! All excellent topic’s! Please to send me two or more copies of
your fire oration and as many of the water and land Oration, as you can spare.9 The elements are good and wholesome, but I hope
you will never write upon air, lest your style should be
inflated and bombastic. “Vir bonus est Quiz![”]10
With best love and seasonable compliments, I am, dear brother / Your’s
RC (Adams
Papers); internal address: “J Q Adams. Esqr:.”
Not found.
Issues 1, 2, and 3 of volume 3 of the Port Folio were published on 1, 8, and 15 Jan., respectively; issue 52 of
volume 2 was published on 15 January.
JQA waited until 22 May to reply to
TBA’s request for Michel Guillaume (Hector) St. John de Crèvecoeur, Voyage dans la haute Pensylvanie et dans l’état de
New-York, 3 vols., Paris, 1801, a copy of which is at MQA and bears CFA’s bookplate. In his letter
(Adams Papers), JQA
explained that he had not yet sent the work “because I have had a sort of inclination
to furnish an Article or two from them myself— I believe the Work has never been
translated, and with due attention and Industry, might be an abundant Stock material for many months” (Catalog of the Stone Library).
For TBA’s request that William Smith Shaw copy
letters, see his letter to
JQA, 16 May 1802, and note 3, above. The “last copy” may have
been a transcription of one of three letters published in the Port Folio, 3:214–215 (2 July 1803): from Benjamin Franklin, 22 March 1776, or
from Silas Deane, 26 July or 18 Aug., all to C. W. F. Dumas.
Possibly Joseph Anthony Jr. (ca. 1761–1814), a Philadelphia
jeweler who was based at 94 High Street (vol. 10:218; Philadelphia American Daily
Advertiser, 10 Aug. 1814;
Philadelphia Directory
, 1803, p. 18, Shaw-Shoemaker, No. 4858).
Acts, 16:9.
JQA’s translation of the German song “To Hebe” was
published in the Port Folio, 3:32 (22 Jan. 1803). The
song comprised a rumination on an agricultural landscape: “Lo! in solemn, soft repose
/ Nature, now, to silence yields; / And from clouds fast-flitting flows, / Soft
refreshment to the fields” (Kerber and
Morris, “The Adams Family and the Port Folio,” p.
470).
For the editor’s note to JQA’s ode, see JQA to TBA, 5 Oct. 1802, note 2, above.
On 22 Dec., JQA delivered an oration at Plymouth,
Mass., on the anniversary of the landing of the Mayflower, in which he celebrated the colonists’ “courage and perseverance” and
noted that when “they formed themselves into a body-politic, the day after their
arrival,” it was “perhaps the only instance, in human history, of that positive,
original social compact, which speculative philosophers have imagined as the only
legitimate source of government.” JQA also praised the accomplishments of
their descendants, observing that “the revolutions of time furnish no previous example
of a nation, shooting up to maturity and expanding into greatness with the rapidity
which has characterized the growth of the American people.” At a dinner following the
address, JQA offered a toast to Plymouth’s “Perpetual prosperity,” and
after he departed he was toasted: “May the political career, he so gloriously
commenced, be long continued, with encreasing splendor.”
The oration was published as a pamphlet on 3 Jan. 1803 and
reviewed in the Port Folio, 3:157–158 (14 May). William
White wrote to William Smith Shaw on 23 Feb. (PPIn), thanking him for sending JQA’s oration
and noting, “It must be a great Satisfaction to our late worthy President, to behold a
Son so worthy of him supporting the Reputation of his Name.” TBA began
the paragraph by referring to the Plymouth celebration as “the feast of shells,” a
quotation from James Macpherson, Fingal, Book III, para.
17; Book VI, para. 11, and a term that since 1798 had been widely applied to
Forefathers’ Day (Boston Columbian Centinel, 29 Dec.
1802; Boston Commercial Gazette, 3 Jan. 1803;
JQA, An Oration, Delivered at Plymouth … at the
Anniversary Commemoration of the First Landing of Our
252
Ancestors, at that Place, Boston, 1802, p. 7, 13, 17,
Shaw-Shoemaker, No. 1717; Albert
Matthews, “The Term Pilgrim Fathers and Early Celebrations of Forefathers’ Day,” Col. Soc. Mass., Pubns.
, 17:323, 327–329, 333–334, 335 [Dec. 1914]). For
JQA’s address to the Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society, see
AA to TBA, 13
March 1802, and note 5, above.
TBA used a satirical version of the phrase “Who is
the good man?” from Horace’s Epistles that appeared as an
epigram in Microcosm, 1:329 [4 June 1787], in which
“quis” was replaced with “quiz,” meaning an odd or eccentric person, and accompanied
by a translation: “The good man is a Quiz.” His play on words may also have been in
reference to the nickname Mr. Quiz the Johnson family gave to JQA in
London in 1795 or 1796 (vol. 11:306; Horace, Epistles, transl. John Davie and
Robert Cowan, 2011, Oxford, Book I, Epistle xvi, line 40;
OED
).
y:10
th:1803.
Painful necessity has for many months prevented me the use of my own pen,—nor have I seen any effect of yours for a very long period;—1 yet, judging from my own feelings, I have no doubt, you will be gratified by a renewed enquiry after your health and happiness.— By your son, I understand that the felicity of his parents is not interupted by any of the infirmities which usually creep on with advancing years.—
I was pleased to see your eldest son at my house—it awakened old recollections,— You know I always loved your children—but his visit was too short— I had not even time to shew him the pleasing portrait of his deceased and once beloved friend.—2 I always cherish the pleasures of memory—but past images at this moment, croud too fast on my mind for utterance.— You are not a stranger to the tender feelings of the maternal heart— I wave the subject—it is always apt to carry me too far.—
I turn to a theme of business, though of no great importance.— I have not forgot, though it has been too long delayed, that you have a small pecuniary demand upon me—the deprivation of the use of my eyes, totally prevents me loooking over old papers and minutes.—3 I should be obliged to you, madam, if you would at your leisure, see what the balance due you is and inform me when convenient, as I wish to owe no man or woman, any thing but love, one to another
I have lately been several times informed, that both you and Mr Adams have expressed a wish, to see your old associates
resident in this place;—the wish is reciprocated by us, but if ever we meet on this side
the grave, it must be in the old mansion at Plymouth, where we have together spent many
pleasant hours and days, and where you will find the same hospitable arms and friendly
hearts 253 that used to receive you with so much cordiality,
before the clouds of adversity had ever reached our tabernacle.—
My excellent husband, who still enjoys usual health and vigour of
mind, unites in respects to yours with, / Your assured Friend / & Hble: Servt:—
RC in James Warren Jr.’s hand (Adams Papers); addressed: “Mrs:
Abigail Adams / Quincy”; internal address: “Mrs:
Adams.”
The last extant correspondence between AA and Warren was dated Oct. 1799, for which see vol. 14:4–5.
After delivering his 22 Dec. 1802 Forefathers’ Day address in
Plymouth, JQA visited Warren and her husband, James, recording that they
appeared “to be broken down, with years and infirmities.” Mercy Warren likely wanted
to show JQA a portrait of their fifth son, George, who had socialized
with JQA prior to his death on 15 Feb. 1800 (vol. 3:133;
D/JQA/24, APM
Reel 27; JQA, Diary
, 1:318;
2:104, 395, 427; Massachusetts Mercury, 25 Feb. 1800).
The debt might possibly date to March 1797 when Mercy Warren informed AA that a Harvard College lottery ticket they jointly purchased had won a prize (vol. 12:8, 9).
Signature in Mercy Warren’s hand.